2015-2017 Program
The Society for the Humanities will sponsor two postdoctoral teaching-research fellowships in the humanities, each awarded for the two-year period beginning July 2015. Each fellowship offers a stipend of $45,000/year. While in residence at Cornell, Mellon Fellows hold department affiliations and joint appointments with the Society for the Humanities, have limited teaching duties, and the opportunity for scholarly work. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships are available in two areas of specialization.

With the sponsorship of the Society for the Humanities, the Africana Studies and Research Center invites applications for a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. Applicants’ scholarship should focus on the areas of contemporary, Afro-Latin American literature and culture, history, or interpretive social sciences, with particular emphasis on popular youth culture, gender and sexuality, and/or comparative, Western hemispheric studies. Research on Afro-Latin American experiences in the United States will also be considered, especially if they are placed in extensive dialogue with similar experiences or racial formations in the rest of the hemisphere. Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a solid grasp of their methodology for both research and teaching.
The fellow will be asked to teach the following two courses: (1) an introductory, undergraduate course that would describe, define, and interrogate the Black Atlantic from the perspective of Latin American literature, history, and/or popular culture so as to propose and evaluate Afro-Latin American racial formations and the specificities and commonalities they may share with their African American counterparts; and (2) a combined undergraduate and graduate-level course that focuses on the methods and theories that the postdoctoral fellow employed in his or her dissertation; in addition to the examination of the key theoretical concepts or theoreticians that influenced the dissertation, the course should also provide case studies or illustrations of methodology for student discussion and analysis.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants for the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2015/16—2016/2017 academic years must have received the Ph.D. degree after September 2009. Mellon Fellowships are open to international applicants. Applicants who will have received the Ph.D. degree by June 30, 2015 are eligible. Applicants who do not have the Ph.D. in hand at the time of the application must include a letter from the committee chair or department stating that the Ph.D. degree will be conferred before the term of the fellowship begins.

Course proposals for the courses that the Mellon Fellow will teach while in residence at Cornell: two courses during each year of the fellowship: one lower-level course and one upper, 4000-level course

Three letters of recommendation. Please ask referees to submit their letters directly through Academic Jobs Online. Letters must be received on or

With the sponsorship of the Society for the Humanities, the Department of Philosophy invites applications for a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, beginning July, 2015. Stipend of $45,000 per academic year. Fellows have limited teaching duties and the opportunity for scholarly work.

General Area: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century (i.e. Modern) Philosophy

Description: The modern period in the history of philosophy (the 17th-18th century) is characterized by critical reflection on traditional assumptions about what we can and cannot know, particularly in relation to the emerging paradigm of knowledge in the physical sciences. The philosophical verdict is by no means uniform. Descartes and those in the rationalist tradition (such as Spinoza and Leibniz) championed pure a priori knowledge in physics, psychology, and theology. Locke, Cavendish, Hume and other empiricists were less optimistic about pure reason, and more concerned about various skeptical threats. In Kant’s critical philosophy, natural science becomes the paradigmatic source of knowledge of how the world appears to us. Non-scientific beliefs about fundamental reality, while important to human life and practically justifiable, cannot lay claim to the status of knowledge.

In the recent past, scholars from a number of philosophical traditions have done fascinating research on the complexities of reflection on knowledge and science in this period and on its contemporary relevance. We propose to award a post-doctoral fellowship to a candidate who is extending this area of research in creative and interesting ways.

*although not mandatory, the department would prefer that at least one of these upper-level seminars have a substantive philosophy of science component.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants for the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2015/16—2016/2017 academic years must have received the Ph.D. degree after September 2009. Mellon Fellowships are open to international applicants. Applicants who will have received the Ph.D. degree by June 30, 2015 are eligible. Applicants who do not have the Ph.D. in hand at the time of the application must include a letter from the committee chair or department stating that the Ph.D. degree will be conferred before the term of the fellowship begins.

Course proposals for the courses that the Mellon Fellow will teach while in residence at Cornell: two courses during each year of the fellowship: one lower-level course and one upper, 4000-level course

Three letters of recommendation. Please ask referees to submit their letters directly through Academic Jobs Online. Letters must be received on or